Professionals usually make things look easy, and that certainly applies to this AG2R La Mondiale team mechanic and his handlebar taping skills.
As we’ve discovered when we’ve run similar videos in the past, there’s no such thing as a standard way of taping your handlebar.
Some people wrap the tape from outside to in over the top of the handlebar, others do the opposite; some people criss-cross around the shifters, others don’t bother; some people use short lengths of bar tape to cover the shifter clamps, others don’t feel the need…
Then you’ve got people who prefer a second layer of handlebar tape and there are even crazy mavericks who start at the centre and work to the ends of the handlebar rather than vice versa. Those people are out of control.
Anyhow, this team mechanic has his system down pat and he gets an ultra-neat finish in the time it takes most of us to find a pair of scissors.
Mat has worked for loads of bike magazines over 20+ years, and been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. He's been road.cc technical editor for eight years, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a past winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer.